ST. LOUIS — You may excuse Rickie Fowler if he wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat at times wondering, When will it be my time?

Or worse: Will it ever be my time?

It certainly isn’t panic time for Fowler, who’s 29 years old and playing in his 36th major championship without a victory so far.

But based on how well he’s played in majors without reaping the reward of an invite to the winner’s circle for the hoisting of a chalice, the clock has got to be ticking in his head and his heart.

Days like Thursday’s opening round at the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive, where he shot a 5-under-par 65 to stand one shot out of the lead held by Gary Woodland, have to make Fowler’s heart race a little faster.

Fowler has put himself in position to capture his first major and change the narrative of his career. That, however, is not exactly stunning news considering it seems like Fowler always is putting himself in good positions at majors.

In his 35 majors entering this week, Fowler has eight top-5 finishes, including three runner-ups. In 2014, he finished in the top 5 in all four major championships.

So this not-closing-one-out thing is becoming, well, a thing for the affable Fowler, who does his best in public to appear unaffected by it all.

The narrative overshadowing his career (and even his bright-orange Oklahoma State attire) continues to be when — whether? — Fowler will win a major.

He has four career wins on the PGA Tour and another two in Europe. But while his 20-something contemporaries, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, have enjoyed the fruits of major championship victories, Fowler has been left to graciously congratulate them and wonder when — if? — he’ll ever get a taste.

“I always have hope,’’ Fowler said assuredly after his round Thursday. “I know Phil [Mickelson] didn’t win until his 30s (33). I don’t know the exact numbers, but it’s not something I necessarily worry about. Keep putting ourselves in position, get in contention, we have had plenty of runner-ups, Jack [Nicklaus] had a lot of runner-ups [19 in majors]. We’ll just keep beating down that door.’’

Indeed, Mickelson, who owns five major championship titles, didn’t win his first until he was 33, winning the 2004 Masters in his 45th career try in a major after nine top-5 finishes, including three runner-ups.

Ben Crenshaw, who won two Masters, went 0-for-36 before winning one at age 34 after eight top-5 finishes, including four runner-ups.

Sergio Garcia, at age 37, won the 2016 Masters for his first major victory after having gone 0-for-70.

Then consider the likes of Lee Westwood, who’s 0-for-80 in majors (with 18 top-10s, 11 top 5s and three runner-ups), and Colin Montgomerie, who’s 0-for-75. Westwood, at age 42, probably is past the window where he can bag a major. Montgomerie, at 55, is playing on the Champions Tour.

Among the players currently in their prime, Matt Kuchar has played in 50 majors without a win.

“You can’t force the issue,’’ Fowler said. “That kind of relates to some of our game plan and how we’re going about this week as far as just trying to play within ourselves and not do anything extra special. I don’t have to play special to win. Wear out fairways, wear out greens and keep it as stress-free as possible and keep picking apart this golf course.’’

If he can do that, which is what he did Thursday, then perhaps we’re speaking of Fowler in a different light come Sunday night.

We’re trained not to root in this business, to be objective. But subjectively, Fowler’s worth rooting for because he’s good for the game, he brings fans to the events and he treats people right. He, too, is anything but all style and no substance. He’s a player who works hard at his craft and deserves to be rewarded for it.

“I’m definitely happy about the start, but Thursday you can’t go win the golf tournament,’’ Fowler said. “You can definitely take yourself out of it and lose it, so we took care of what we needed to take care of and we move on to Friday and go do what we need to go do [Friday].

“Really, all we can do is take care of each day,’’ he said. “Thursday you can check the success box and move on to Friday.’’

For his sake and the sake of the masses who root for him, hopefully Fowler is able to check three more boxes a “success’’ before sundown Sunday.